Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners VP180

I have a yamaha receiver and a Denon receiver and an emotiva pre/pro and i find that my yamaha exhibits the same results you are describing. It doesnt seem to really start producing a lot of volume until it get cranked up past -30. This is the nature of the beast really. Tell us about the smaller speakers, they may not be as sensitive as the Axiom speakers and require more power to be driven to the same volume level. Yamaha makes great equipment but they tend to be a little underpowered compared to the competition. Something else to consider is that modern gear uses logarithmic volume control vs linear that older equipment used with mechanical resistor type volume knobs. My old pioneer integrated amp is really crankin by half volume which is what many people are use to whereas my other equipment doesnt get going until about 3/4 . Search logarithmic vs linear hopefully that will make things clearer.

I truly believe that keeping all your speakers in the same family so as to eliminate any mismatch's in sensitivity and have a balanced output. There are a lot of factors to achieving a balanced and functions system. I am in no way knocking yamaha but it is my experience that the pre outs are underpowered and dont provide as much output voltage as one would normally see though i have seen some tests where they have hit 7 volts unclipped but my yamaha was not a good match for my Emotiva amps.

I see that your amp will hit full power with 2V (volts) so i dont think this is your problem.



Linear vs. Log

Potentiometers, or "pots" to electronics enthusiasts, are differentiated by how quickly their resistance changes. In linear pots, the amount of resistance changes in a direct pattern. If you turn or slide it halfway, its resistance will be halfway between its minimum and maximum settings. That's ideal for controlling lights or a fan, but not for audio controls. Volume controls have to cater to the human ear, which isn't linear. Instead, logarithmic pots increase their resistance on a curve. At the halfway point volume will still be moderate, but it will increase sharply as you keep turning up the volume. This corresponds to how the human ear hears.